-Chapter 12, Growth

"How on earth am I still not ready to fight Spirits? Kotori cleared me for combat ages ago!" Samanya whinged, folding her arms and pouting her lips.

"I don't know what to tell you," Mio replied, popping an apologetic shrug. "You're just...sticking."

"Sticking?" Sam's eyebrow rose. "Uh-huh?"

Mio shrouded her face with her hand, trying to think. "I can't describe it too well, but a fight with a Spirit is all about flow." She waved her body back and forth, naturally rolling onto the balls of her feet. "Shaving off downtime. Keeping up pressure. Making sure that…" she struggled to come up with any other word than 'flow' to describe what she was talking about, "each action flows into the next."

She failed.

Sam's mouth twisted unconvincingly. "Please, use vaguer words."

"Alright smartass, I'll show you." Mio's body lowered as her legs spread apart. "Simple rushdown. One-two into a finish of your choice."

Sam frowned. "I can do that."

In the blink of an eye, Sam screamed across the outcropping, blazing past the twilight sun. Within a few metres of her target, she forced her left foot ahead, leaving deep scores in the paving slabs beneath as she came to a hasty halt. Then came her right fist, barrelling toward the Spirit's stomach, followed by a wide left, then an arcing spin-kick, leaving her out of hand-to-hand range once more. Sam grinned as she landed. "How was that?"

Mio, on another world completely, pursed her lips in thought, head still forced back from Sam's kick and eyes gazing far into a crystal-blue sky. "Again."

Sam's head tilted. "Heh?"

"You heard me. Go again," Mio repeated.

Sam groaned but obediently came at her again, arms flailing.

"Again."

Once more...

"Again."

And again...

"Again!"

Sam sighed.

"Stop!"

The sudden interruption of what had essentially been Sam on autopilot almost put her in the ground as she struggled to stop herself. "What, what!?" she stammered.

Mio cupped her chin as she thought, tapping her fingers to some irregular beat. "I think I've got it."

"Oh do you now?"

Mio readied herself, finally putting effort into a defensive stance. "Come at me one more time."

The sudden seriousness in Mio's tone dismantled Sam's snide remark. "You really found it, didn't you?"

"I think so." Mio slowly nodded. "Yes, I'm sure of it. Come at me and I'll show you."

Sam lowered and leant back on her strong foot, ready to break into a sprint. The sun coasted in the distance, pushing long, dark shadows past the pair. Her skin crackled with energy. "Time to give this all I've got."

Mio watched closely, her own skin beginning to glow with power. "Wait for it. I'll have less than a few milliseconds to catch her."

Sam bobbed, feinting her move, pressuring the Spirit to react. The Spirit, however, remained still and focused.

BANG

Sam dashed forth, sending fissures throughout the stone beneath. She brought her right fist up from her side, aiming for Mio's exposed jaw. The punch rocketed up to the sky.

THWACK

Sam gasped as air was forced from her body. She clutched her chest, and found Mio's own fist half-lodged. She heaved, unable to form words, and leant on the Spirit for balance.

Guilty for socking the girl quite that hard, Mio embraced Sam, holding her up with two arms around her waist. "Sorry for the hefty punch, I just needed to show you how glaring that weakness was."

Sam mewled. "You're mean to me…"

Mio smoothed Sam's shaggy hair. "I'm sorry, but it's a tough world. Especially going up against Spirits."

Sam let herself lean into Mio a little more, still ragged with her breathing. "Much tougher than the-" Sam's breath hitched, her shoulders shuddering, "-training hall, that's for sure."

"You just take your time recovering, sweetheart."

"Th-thanks."

Once Sam's breath returned to normal, Mio pointed out where Sam's style failed her. "Right there!"

Sam froze, her left foot pushed out and her weight shifted, ready for an opening salvo of blows. "Here?"

Mio nodded quickly. "Yes. Slowing yourself down like that leaves you wide open. I'm surprised no-one took advantage of it already."

Sam thought back to the only two people she had really thought: Tohka and Origami. She shrugged. "Maybe."

Mio rolled her eyes. "Cockiness doesn't suit you, Sam."

Sam grinned. "I respectfully disagree." She poked her tongue out at Mio's sigh. "Can we appreciate the 'respectfully' though?"

"Sam, focus!"

Sam tiredly shook her head and apologised, before asking, "That's great and all, but what do I do about it? I can't punch something if I'm blazing past it at half the speed of sound."

"Exactly, exactly!" Mio snapped at the end of Samanya's last sentence, biting the end of her thumb as she thought. "You need a new weapon. Something that pairs well with your speed."

"Like a sword? I don't really have much weapon training," Sam conceded, guiltily scratching her head.

"Mmm, maybe, but you might still get boxed out in a mid-range battle. You need something with a bit more reach."

Sam brought on her limited memory of melee weaponry. "Umm, like a nagi-"

"A scythe!" Mio exclaimed, slamming her fist into her palm.

The image of a crescent blade fixed atop a long pole materialized in Mio's grasp. She gestured for Sam to take it as starlight itself seemed to cascade from the edge. She held the weapon, flipping its weight around its balance point and holding the blade down, near the ground. "I'm sure you can come up with something better once you get topside, but for now, practise with that," Mio said.

The blade sent arcs of energy leaping through the air as Sam twirled it about before her, quickly becoming attuned to its weight. "Are you sure this will help? I'll essentially be starting from scratch all over again."

"It's the only way. Right now, you'll be trounced by anyone with adequate training or power. One Spirit especially…"

"Huh?"

Mio shook her head. "Never mind. Let's give this scythe a go, shall we?"

Sam looked down at her hand, tightly gripping the staff. She nodded. "Hell yeah."

Shido tentatively tapped on Tohka's door. The house, normally so bubbly and full of life, was dark and cold. Kotori was nowhere to be found, and the rain outside seemed to never stop. It almost felt like the lights themselves were dimmed. "Hey, Tohka! Will you let me in?" Shido pleaded. "Please, just here me out." He flinched as the room shook.

"Why don't you go talk to your little girlfriend?" She shrieked. "I have nothing more to say about it you dummy-dumb-dumb-dumb!" Within Tohka's modest room, the girl lay curled up in her bed, clutching the dark blue sheets. Her usual joyous expression was dark. Not angry like it had been at the department store, but instead just filled with an endless sorrow. Anguish had returned to Tohka's soul.

Later that day, and after Tohka had finally left the solitude of her room, she found herself sitting across from Reine at the local diner. Her hands, buried deep in her lap, fiddled nervously with her dress. Around them, the place was quiet and, aside from the occasional clink from the kitchen, the only sound to be heard was their hushed talking.

"I'll get right to the point here, Tohka," Reine continued, cutting the earlier small talk. "You've been really irritated, lately. Please just tell me what's going on." The woman leaned back in the simple green booth, giving Tohka room to think. "Although, if I had to guess, I'd say this is about Shido and that girl."

"N-no," she protested with a conflicted look in her eyes. "No, you're wrong! This has nothing to do with him."

"Oh, sorry. I just assumed he was the cause of it."

For a heartbeat, Tohka stared into nothing but empty space, before breaking out into a pained groan and hiding behind her plum hair. "I don't know what's wrong," she said, now sombre. "I'm in the worst mood ever and I'm not even sure I know why. Shido can do whatever he wants. It's really none of my business; who he dates or kisses or spends his free time with. But, when I saw that…" Pained memories of that girl kissing Shido filled Tohka's head. A sight that sent a shock-wave through her heart. "I felt awful all of a sudden. Then, when I heard the rabbit say that Shido cared more about that other girl than me, it was like…I was empty inside. Like I was all alone." The Spirit's voice was barely more than a coarse whisper by this point. "I'm really worried there may be something wrong with me…"

Reine waited until Tohka had gotten everything out of her system, before breaking her usual monotone expression and giving a thin smile. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with you, but listen, I think we should definitely clear a few things up."

"Like what?"

"Well, you should know, that kiss was an accident. Completely," Reine explained. "And it's not remotely true that Shido cares about that other girl more than you."

Tohka averted her gaze. "Yes, but Shido was-"

"Just think about it. He risked his life to save you. Do you seriously believe he would have put himself in danger like that if he didn't care one bit?"

Suddenly, Tohka found herself in the department store once more, surrounded by dank shadows and dim lights. She felt her body move under a force that was not her own. Thrown to the side by Shido, barely dodging a torrent of icy shards. Tohka paused, struggling with her own memory. Then, she saw Hinata. He, too, had risked his life to protect both of them. Just like how Sam had before that. The girl she had let down.

Hinata. How long had it been since they talked? That first day when they met? When she almost killed him? The girl stood up. "I want to talk to Hinata."

Reine slowly nodded. "Of course."

The rain, if it could even be such things, seemed determined never to let up. The downpour that now beat against Shido's umbrella as he turned for home hadn't relinquished its chilling grip over the city for even a second today. As he passed by the damaged store, he couldn't help but stare at the craters that pockmarked the street, until he shook his head and slipped into a narrow alleyway, before gasping at the slight green figure picking through the trash. "Y-Yoshinon?"

The Spirit glanced back. Eyes widening, she made to flee down the alley.

"Hey, wait a second! Don't run away!" Shido called, thankfully stopping the girl in her tracks. Then, he noticed two pairs of slim fingers poking out of her coat. "Oh, hey, what happened to your puppet?"

With that, Yoshinon quickly dashed back into Shido, clinging close to his stomach.

"Oh, I see. That's what you're looking for?"

Yoshinon's head bobbed cautiosly in reply.

Shido ushered the girl under a nearby balcony, sheltering them both from the rain. The Spirit, with a soft, hushed voice, explained that she had lost the puppet during the battle with the AST the day before.

"Kotori, do you copy that?" Shido asked, turning away to hide his mutterings.

"We read you," his sister replied.

"If I may, commander, we should consult the young Hinata. He may have a clue as to where he dropped it," Kannazuke chimed in, overhearing the conversation.

Kotori sucked on her lollipop in thought. "Good idea. Get down there right away."

"Yes, ma'am!"

With Kannazuke already absent from the ship's bridge, Kotori turned her attention to Shido once more. "We'll run over the footage and do what we can on our end, but we're probably going to take a backseat on this one. You'll be in a lot less danger than last time," she said, before adding, "I hope," under her breath.

"Alright. One more thing."

"Mmm?"

"How's Tohka? Have you heard from her?"

Kotori sighed and loosely tugged at the collar of her shirt. "I believe she's talking to Reine, but try not to worry about her too much. You need all your attention on Hermit."

Shido hesitated, but reluctantly agreed to leave Tohka in Ratatoskr's hands. "Yoshinon, we're ready to start whenever you are," said Shido.

Yoshinon looked away sheepishly. "You see, the thing is...my name is...it's not Yoshinon," she murmured. "It's Yoshino – and Yoshinon is the puppet we're looking for. And my friend…"

"Yoshino. I gotcha." The girl gave a subtle nod before stepping out into the rainstorm. "Hey, wait a sec!" Shido called as he grabbed her arm and pushed his umbrella into her hands. "Please, take it. You could catch a bad cold in weather like this." Yoshino looked around, confused. "Oh, don't worry about me, I'll be fine," Shido assured.

The girl shyly nodded before looking back up with big blue eyes. "Um...that's very kind of you…"

Shido, in return, flashed a big warm grin. "Not a problem!"

After about an hour of searching and digging through what used to be a busy crossroad; overturning rubble and sneaking past police tape, Yoshino made a low growling noise. She whimpered and held her stomach.

"Are you hungry, Yoshino?" Shido asked, turning away from the pile of concrete.

Quickly, Yoshino shook her head, but another, louder growl from her stomach said otherwise. Embarrassed, she drew her hood over her flushed face.

Kotori, watching from high above, suggested, "Why don't you two get something to eat? Could give you a good opportunity to ask some questions."

Shido glanced at their surroundings, frowning at the shuttered windows and closed doors. "Looks like the fighting put these restaurants out of commission." He made a face, then gently lifted Yoshino's hood up. "Let's go to my house. We can eat there."

Hinata set himself down in the chair beside Sam's bed, forcing out a shrill squeak that punctured the silence as metal ground against metal. The medical bay was always kept warm and well ventilated but, in stark contrast, the slate-grey walls and bright light strips that surrounded Nat seemed to close in on him, making his skin itch. Slumping, he reached to squeeze Sam's hand as his eyes fell shut. "What am I supposed to do, Sam? I'm not like you. I'm not a fighter. I'm just a failure… I've let you down… I'm sorry…"

At some point, Nat must have drifted off. When he finally awoke, another figure occupied the chair across from him. A man with straight, blonde hair looked toward the boy with an open expression. "Nice nap?"

Nat suddenly became aware of the vice-like grip he had over Sam's hand and quickly let go, ashamed. "S-sorry, sir. I haven't been myself recently."

Kannazuke drew closer, his chair close in tow, and sat down beside Hinata, arms folded over the back. "No need to apologise, kid, I just wanted to ask a few things."

"I don't know where it is, sir," said Hinata, letting his gaze droop.

"Well, yes, the puppet was one of them, but there's something else," he admitted.

Nat's eyes remained downcast. "What, sir?"

"What happened back there, kid?"

Nat's mind lit up with memories, still fresh and warm. He could remember every moment of it, especially when he thought he would die. "What does it matter? I screwed up. Now, I'm paying for it." His voice was croaky. Almost too quiet to hear. "I let her down…"

Kannazuke let out a long sigh through his nose, before rising to his feet and placing a hand on the boy's head. "I've worked with Sam for just over a year now. Known her longer than you. She's a born and bred fighter, that's for sure. Something fierce in those eyes, and she's got herself some high expectations." He ruffled the boy's jet-black hair. "But that's on her, not you. She holds herself and only herself to those standards, so you don't need to blame yourself for not matching them, because I know she wouldn't."

Nat looked up with a face twisted in despair. "Yes, but, I let her down! It was my duty to protect the Spirits, and I failed to do that! I failed her…"

Kannazuke smiled and gripped Nat's shoulder. "Nonsense! Tohka got off without a hitch, Shido got nicked but nothing serious, and we've already got Hermit back on the scopes. I'd say you did pretty damn well."

That was news to him. "Sh-she's back already?"

"Of course! Why do you think I asked about the puppet?"

For the first time today, Nat's regained his composure. "C-can I see her?"

"Well, sure, but you've got another visitor, first."

Nervously, Tohka edged out from behind one of the many curtains that flanked the dozen hospital beds. Big, curious eyes peeked out from her slim face. Now confronted with the boy she almost killed all that time ago, her nerves were shot. "H-hey. Sorry for barging in like this…"

"N-no! It's okay! Come sit down," Nat quickly replied, gesturing toward Kannazuke's discarded chair.

The man took the opportunity to leave the two in peace, but as he departed, he stopped to whisper one last thing into Nat's ear. "She's proud. I promise. Come see me on the bridge when you're done here."

Nat watched Kannazuke's back as he left, then followed Tohka's gaze. He found himself looking at Sam's still body.

"How is she?" Tohka asked.

"She's...doing okay."

"She's been asleep for a long time."

"Mmm, I think that shot really took it out of her."

"Because of me."

"What do you mean?"

"It's my fault she got hurt, isn't it? What happened...was meant for me, not her."

"Tohka, that's not true."

"How isn't it? If I hadn't been there, that other girl wouldn't have been there either! There would have been no shot or screams or pain! Nothing! There'd be no-one in that bed and no-one would have to get hurt because of me."

"It's not your fault! You can look back all you want, tear yourself apart with hindsight until the end of time! Hell, that's what most humans do, but it'll never change that it wasn't your fault! You weren't behind the gun; you weren't pulling the trigger! You didn't almost kill Sam, that other girl did!"

Tohka saw the same look on Nat's face that she had seen on Sam's a dozen times or more. When they first met, their first fight with the AST, when Sam screamed Tohka's name out as hard as she could to rescue the Spirit from her own anger. "How...how do you two do the things that you do?"

Nat sighed. "Why does anyone do anything? Because they want to, or-or maybe they need to. Maybe they do it for someone else's sake. Sometimes it can be personal or a duty. Me? I do it to prove myself. I need people to know that they can depend on me, and I want to make her proud." Nat brushed an errant strand of Sam's hair away from her eyes. "Sam's got a duty to fulfil – one she takes great pride in and enjoys."

"Wh-what about Shido?"

Nat's eyes lost focus as he thought, but it didn't take him long to realise an answer. "Shido wants to help people."

Tohka, hopeful, looked up. "Can it really be that simple?"

"I think so. Truly, I do." Naturally, the boy's mind fluttered back to the department store, where so much had seemed to kick off. There Shido was, reassuring him in those dark floors. "He was hesitant at first. Who wouldn't be? But I think you triggered something inside of him, Tohka. A desire that I don't think he knew he had. And with this new girl...I think he just wants to help her like he did with you." There was a pause as Nat collected his thoughts. "I think that's all I want to."

Tohka's fingers became intertwined – steepled hands pressed against her chin. "Why her though? I needed him too… I was...I was so scared in that place. I was told so many terrible things about the spacial quakes. I was so worried…"

"He knows that, Tohka, but that's the tough thing about life, something you'll have to learn. Everything's a choice, whether we like it or not. Shido can't choose you every time, but when it matters, I know you're his number one priority." Nat had no idea if what he said would ring true when push came to shove, but he had hope.

It took Tohka a short while to react. The silence that encompassed the room earlier now took on a new meaning. Rather than a feeling of isolation, the atmosphere was now one of reaching out and reliance. The Spirit looked up. "Do you and Sam ever fall out like this?" she whispered.

"Of course. Everyone falls out with everyone else from time to time. The difference is that when you fall out with someone you like, you know that they just want it to end too. The...rift that grows between you hurts both people, and at the first chance either of you get, you close it together."

A rift. That clicked for the troubled girl. "Do you think Shido feels the same way?" Tohka scratched at her wrist anxiously.

Finally, Nat had some self-assurance in his reply. "Hell yeah he does."

Tohka's unfocused gaze aligned itself on the stoic thumbs-up from the boy with jet-black hair. "Thank you, Hinat-"

"Please, call me Nat."

She nodded. "Thank you, Nat. I'm gonna go see him right now and say sorry!"

"Thattagirl!" Nat jumped up, wrapping Tohka up in his arms. "Let's give our ol' friend some peace. We're making quite a racket."

The Spirit looked over at Sam, still sound asleep, and hummed in agreement.

Nat paused to look back as the door slid open in their wake. "Come back to us soon."

"Where are we, by the way?"

"Oh, um, just a hospital. There's loads of them. Like the one at school."

"Wow! Are they all this shiny?"

"M-mostly."